One Legal System at a Time

The man previously found guilty of killing Daniel Morcombe (and other atrocities) is currently appealing his case due to evidence issues. Judgement could be handed down today.

The Case of Daniel Morcombe is unfortunately now one of infamy in Australia. There is unlikely to be a single person in SE Queensland who doesn’t know about it, and a good 50% or more of the rest of Australia.

Quick summary: Daniel was abducted while waiting for a bus to go Christmas shopping for his family. He was 13 years old and it took another 8 years for his parents to find out what happened – QLD Police obtained a confession following a covert operation. I am not going in to details. It is suffice to say this is NOT the type of “evil” I want in my New World Order. It’s not genius – it’s down-right sick and broken and simply evil. Not “Evil Genius”. There is no place for it in my ideal world.

Now comes the tricky part: the Court process is being challenged due to technicalities. And at the risk of being the only voice to say this, because of the emotional volatility of the topic, I’m okay with the appeal.

We have a legal system for a reason – as ideal as it would be to just go “yep, his guilty. Shoot him”, I know it is not that simple. And we have a system in most countries to avoid any abuse of that ideal world. It’s not perfect, but then again it is made by humans for humans.

Not too long ago, Queensland (the territory in this sorry tale) had a huge corruption problem. Now, while there is no convicting proof of direct police corruption, there was a lot of hearsay. And while a lot of good police were caught up in the hearsay, there are rules in place to protect the good cops and the innocent.

And to keep paralegals in work – the sorry bastards left to research the technicalities like this one.

And while I believe this guy is guilty, I cannot claim to know all the facts. Nor can you. If there is even the slightest shred that he was innocent; that he was coerced in some way to confess, or worse still mentally ill enough to think it was some game to play, then I would still prefer to go through the crappy appeal process. Because then we could refocus on the real evil bastards out there.

However, like I said – I think he is guilty. And I would prefer him to go to jail for a very very long time the right way. Without any chance of appeals like this.

This is not an attack on the Police. They worked hard on this case – but they are not infallible. And the amount of rules and regulations out there just for them… Well, it is understandable if one or two slip up in their focus on getting a bad guy off the street.

But these rules are there to ensure that the police don’t become the bad guys. Because then we are all screwed.

And don’t attack the lawyers. Evidence issues like this need to be addressed. If ever you try to drag my sorry butt to Court, I would want a lawyer like this. Someone who will find anything to help my case. Though, I think they crossed the line arguing bias with the Chief Justice.

Have a bit of faith in the system. Most of the faults lie within human behaviour. And while most of us may not like the possible outcomes, step away from the media and trust in the essence of those working it everyday.